[Illustration: FLOATING ELEVATOR AND SPOIL DISTRIBUTOR FOR THE BALTIC
SEA CANAL.]

The necessary machinery and superstructure are supported on two
vessels connected, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, with cross girders, a
sufficient width being left between each vessel to form a well large
enough for a barge to float into, and for the working of the bucket
ladder utilized in raising the material from the barges. The girders
are braced together and carry the framing for the bucket chains,
gears, etc.

The port vessel is provided with a compound engine of 150 indicated
horse power, with injection condenser actuating two powerful
centrifugal pumps, raising water which enters by a series of holes
into the bottom of the shoots underneath the dredged material,
carrying the material to the conduit (as indicated on Fig. 4 and in
detail on Figs. 6 and 7).

A steel boiler of 80 square meters (860 square feet) heating surface,
and 6 atmospheres (90 lb.) working pressure, supplies steam to the
engine. Forward on the deck of the same vessel there is a vertical
two-cylinder high pressure engine of 30 indicated horse power, which
helps to bring the barge to the desired position between the parallel
vessels. A horizontal two-cylinder engine of the same power, fitted
with reversing gear, placed in the middle of the foremost iron girder,
raises and lowers the bucket ladder by the interposition of a strongly
framed capstan, as shown on Fig. 5. The gearing throughout is of
friction pulleys and worm and wormwheel. It is driven by belts.

In the starboard vessel there is a compound engine of 100 indicated